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THE PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY 



Allhallows Barking 

AND THE 

MEMORIAL TO WILLIAM PENN 



New York: 249 West 13th Street 
1911 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/allhallowsbarkin01penn 



THE PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY 



Allhallows Barking 

AND THE 

MEMORIAL TO WILLIAM PENN 



{Printed subject to revision] 



New York: 249 West 13th Street 
1911 






SEP- -:»»« 



On. 



ALLHALLOWS BARKING 

THE Church of Allhallows Barking is at the end 
of Great Tower Street, E. C, to the west of the 
Tower of London; it is immediately opposite Mark 
Lane Station of the Metropolitan Railway. It is the 
oldest parish church with a continuous history in the 
City of London, and is one of the eight churches that 
survived the great fire of 1666. 

Visitors to Allhallows Barking should not make the 
mistake of seeking it in the town of Barking in Essex. 
The latter was a convent founded in the seventh cen- 
tury by Erkenwald, afterward bishop of London and 
Saint. The City parish of Allhallows is an irregular 
tract of about fifteen acres, and it is presumed that this 
land belonged to St. Erkenwald and, together with the 
manorial rights and the tithes, formed part of the 
endowment of the convent. 

Of the form and history of the church for four hun- 
dred years nothing is known. With the Norman Con- 
quest it begins to emerge into definite history, and it is 
probable that a new building was erected after the fire 
of 1087 which devastated the City in that year. But 
the name "Barking Church" seems to have been quite 
definitely fixed, for it is so designated in the reign of 
King Stephen [1135-1154]. At all events, the convent 
of Barking founded the vicarage of Allhallows in 1387. 

The close proximity of the church to the Tower, 
which was both a fortress and a royal residence, natu- 
rally directed the interest of the English sovereigns to 
it. The earliest known royal gift was made by Richard 

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Allhallows Barking 



Coeur de Lion [1189-1199], who was the founder of a 
"fair chapel" on the north side of the church. The 
chapel speedily grew in fame and wealth. Edward I. 
[1272-1307] placed a painting of the "Glorious Virgin" 
in it, painted by one Marlibrun, a Jew of Billingsgate. 
In accordance with a vow made at that time, Edward 
visited the chapel five times a year when in England, 
and he obtained special privileges from the Pope for 
those who worshiped there. It has been sometimes sup- 
posed that the heart of Richard Coeur de Lion was 
buried in the chapel, although its possession by the 
cathedral of Rouen in France, to which church Richard 
unquestionably bequeathed it, is now regarded as more 
in accordance with probabilities. 

However, the chapel of St. Mary de Berking became 
the care of the Kings of England and grew into one 
of the most famous places of pilgrimage in England, 
rivaling, in this respect, the London shrines of St. 
Erkenwald in the cathedral and of St. Edward the 
Confessor at Westminster. 

"Nearly 200 years after Edward I.," writes Dr. A. 
J. Mason, one of the latest historians of Allhallows, 
"Edward IV. [1461-1483] endowed two new chantries 
in this chapel with manors at Tooting Beck and Streat- 
ham, which had belonged to the Abbey of Bee in Nor- 
mandy, and gave it the title of the Royal Free Chapel 
of the Glorious Virgin Mary of Barking; and his 
brother, Richard III. [1483-1485], who is viewed more 
favourably at Barking than in most other places, not 
only founded a chantry in it while he was still Duke of 
Gloucester, but, after he became King, he rebuilt the 
chapel from the ground, and made it a Collegiate 



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Allhallows Barking 



Church, with a Dean and six Canons, Edmund Chader- 
ton, a great favourite of his, being the first Dean. But 
those were the last days of such institutions. The 
smiling 'picture' must have perished by the hands of 
Henry VIII.'s [1509-1547] Commissioners, the chan- 
tries were dissolved under Edward VI. [1547-1553]; 
and no trace now remains of the once celebrated chapel 
unless it be a handsome tomb against the wall of the 
north aisle." 

This is the tomb of Sir John Croke, one of the first 
wardens of a confraternity or guild connected with the 
church and founded by John Tibetot or Tiptoft, Earl 
of Worcester and Constable of the Tower of London. 
Tiptoft was the first of English Humanists and the 
warmest friend of Caxton and his printing press. 

While royalty lavished gifts upon the chapel the 
church itself grew in civic importance. It was con- 
venient for the burgesses to use it as a meeting-place 
before presenting themselves on official occasions at the 
Tower, and as a neutral ground on which representa- 
tives of Court and City might meet. Thus in 1265 Sir 
Roger de Leiburn, who was sent by the King to receive 
the submission of the citizens after the battle of Eves- 
ham, received the Mayor and the citizens at the church 
where terms were arranged. Here the citizens gathered 
"in their best apparel" and proceeded to the Tower to 
welcome the King's justiciars or to attend them during 
their sittings. In 1285, on one of these occasions, the 
Mayor, Gregory de Rokesly refused to attend. "He 
formally 'deposed himself in Berkyngechurche by lay- 
ing aside his insignia and seal at the high altar and then 
entered the Court as an ordinary Alderman." The City 



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AUhallows Barking 



was declared to be without a mayor and none was per- 
mitted for thirteen years. Allhallows was one of the 
three churches in which the curfew was rung. The 
Knights Templars were here tried for heresy in 1311. 

Very conspicuous in the interior furnishings of the 
church are three magnificent sword rests of wrought 
iron, commemorating the Mayoralties of Eyles, 1727; 
Bethell, 1755, and Chitty, 1760. "In former times the 
Lord Mayor used to attend some church in the City 
in state every Sunday ; and the parish to which the Lord 
Mayor belonged often testified its pride by erecting for 
him, in his official pew, a rest for his state sword. But 
no church in the City has such fine hammered Sussex 
ironwork as the sword rests in Allhallows Barking, of 
the Lord Mayors, John Chitty and Slingsby Bethell, 
and even these sword rests are not so fine as the hand- 
rail to the pulpit, or an elaborate hat-peg close by, where 
some great merchant must have had his pew." 

No authoritative information concerning the date of 
the erection of Allhallows Barking appears to be 
available. Its Norman fabric is now scarcely visible 
and it has the general character of a church of the 
fifteenth and sixteenth century. Although the general 
effect of the interior is harmonious, it has been exten- 
sively restored at various dates. In 1634-5 there were 
many repairs and much rebuilding. An explosion of 
gunpowder near by severely damaged the southwest 
portion, so that nine years later the tower, which was 
at the end of the south aisle and was surmounted with 
a spire, was taken down. The present tower of brick, 
capped with a dome, was built at the end of the nave. 
Although very plain it is not without a certain gran- 

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Allhallows Barking 



deur, and is a very rare example of church architecture 
at the time of the Commonwealth. 

On September 5, 1666, Pepys wrote in his diary: 
"About two in the morning my wife calls me up and 
tells me of new cryes of fire, it being come to Barkeing 
Church, which is at the bottom of our lane." After 
taking Mrs. Pepys and his gold to a place of safety 
he returned to the scene of desolation. He continues: 
"But going to the fire, I find by the blowing up of 
houses, and the great helpe given by the workmen out 
of the King's yards, sent up by Sir W. Pen, there is a 
good stop given to it, as well as at Marke-lane end as 
ours; it having only burned the dyall of Barking 
Church, and part of the porch, and was there quenched. 
I up to the top of Barking steeple, and there saw the 
saddest sight of desolation that I ever saw; every where 
great fires, oyle-cellars, and brimstone, and other things 
burning. I became af eard to stay there long, and there- 
fore down again as fast as I could, the fire being spread 
as far as I could see it ; and to Sir W. Pen's, and there 
eat a piece of cold meat." 

In 1814 drastic "restorations" were made. The high- 
pitched roof of the nave made way for an inferior one 
of fir and stucco ; the exterior battlements were removed, 
and a seventeenth century vestry at the east end was 
rebuilt. Other repairs and alterations were made in 
1836, 1860 and 1870. The latest "restoration" was 
begun about 1893 from the designs of the late J. L. 
Pearson, the celebrated church architect. "A high- 
pitched timber roof," says Mr. Philip Norman in 
describing these operations, "has intruded itself over 
the nave and chancel, an attempt to imitate what was 

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Allh allows Barking 



there before the restoration of 1814. The florid north 
porch with a chamber above it has been added in place 
of a smaller fabric, which had at least the negative 
merit of being unpretentious. Outside, the plaster has 
been picked off the walls, which have again been battle- 
mented, and are now pointed with that projecting ridge 
of dark cement so dear to most modern architects. A 
trench has been dug along three sides of the building, 
almost large enough to serve for purposes of defence. 
It has been paved with tombstones from the disused 
burial-ground." 

The close proximity of Allhallows Barking to the 
Tower made its graveyard very convenient as a place 
of burial for the victims of the scaffold. In many 
instances these burials were but temporary. The body 
of the celebrated Bishop Fisher, beheaded June 22, 
1535, was "without any reverence tumbled" into a grave 
on the north side of Allhallows; it was subsequently 
removed and laid beside More in the chapel of the 
Tower. The Earl of Surrey, "the first of the English 
nobility who did illustrate his birth with the beauty of 
learning," was buried here after his beheading on Janu- 
ary 21, 1547; the body was subsequently removed to the 
family vault at Framlingham, Suffolk. Similar execu- 
tions and burials are recorded of Lord Thomas Grey, 
April 28, 1554, an uncle of Lady Jane; of Henry 
Peckham and John Daniel in 1556. The location of 
these graves is not now known. Here, on January 11, 
1645, was buried Archbishop Laud, who had been be- 
headed the day before; in 1663 his remains were trans- 
ferred to the College of St. John the Baptist at Oxford, 
of which he had been President and benefactor. His 



[8] 



Allhallows Barking 



steward, George Snayth, who had superintended Laud's 
burial, was himself buried here in 1651, but at a respect- 
ful distance from his celebrated master. The Nonjuror, 
John Kettlewell, was, at his own request in 1695, buried 
on the spot where Laud had lain; his epitaph still 
remains near the bottom of the north aisle. 

Allhallows Barking is peculiarly rich in memorial 
brasses, and possesses one of the richest collections in 
London. The earliest is that to William Tonge, dating 
from 1389 ; it is small in size and circular in form. A 
brass to John Rusche, 1498, is a late example of the 
practice of placing animals at the feet; in this case a 
dog. A brass to Christofer Rawson [d. 1519] and 
his two wives is not far off. Nor is that to William 
Thynne and his wife, 1546. Thynne was shown much 
favour by Henry VIIL, but he is chiefly famous for 
having edited the first complete edition of Chaucer's 
work. A brass to William Armar [d. 1560] com- 
memorates a servant for fifty-one years to Henry VIIL, 
Edward VI., Mary and Elizabeth. A superb brass 
commemorates Andrew Evyngar [d. 1533] and Ellyn, 
his wife, one of the most notable monuments of its kind 
in England. A small brass to John Bacon and his wife 
Joan [1437] is the earliest and most beautiful of its 
kind in the County of Middlesex. Other brasses, some 
of them now fragmentary, commemorate Thomas 
Virby, the seventh vicar, 1434-1453; Thomas Gilbert 
and his wife [d. 1483 and 1489], Roger James [1591], 
who came from Utrecht ; and Mary, wife of John Bur- 
nell; she died in 1612. 

A number of interesting monuments are affixed to 
the walls. Against the east wall, on the south side, is 



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the monument to Kettlewell. On the north wall, near 
Croke's altar-tomb, is the monument of Jerome Bonalia 
[d. 1583], who was probably connected with the Vene- 
tian embassy. Further west is the monument to Bald- 
win Harney, who was for five years physician to the 
Muscovite Czar, and who died in London in 1640. 

The splendid woodwork of Allhallows Barking is 
worthy of more than passing notice; it constitutes, 
indeed, the most conspicuous feature of the interior. 
The lofty pulpit of carved oak was set up in the reign 
of James I. [1603-1625] ; each face of the hexagonal 
canopy carries the text "Xpm prasdicam crucifixum." 
"There is a fine carved parclose at the back of the church 
behind the old pews of the parish officers, and another 
carved screen between the nave and the chancel. The 
altar, which is enclosed by a handsome square balustrade 
of brass [put up in 1750], and is itself an excellent 
piece of oak carving, with an inlaid top, is backed by 
a good reredos, into which are let, along with oil paint- 
ings of Moses and Aaron, scrolls and festoons of lime 
wood from the hand of Grinling Gibbons, who also 
made the cover of the font." 

Of the clergy connected with Allhallows Barking 
no one was more celebrated than Lancelot Andrewes, 
who, says Dr. Mason, may well be claimed as the patron 
saint of Barking. It is to him, he adds, more than to 
any one other man that the English Church owes her 
escape from becoming a merely Protestant sect. Shortly 
after him came Edward Layfield, nephew to Arch- 
bishop Laud. He got into serious trouble with Parlia- 
ment in matters of worship. He was arrested in the 
church while divine service was in progress, mounted 

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Allhallows Barking 



on horseback in full canonicals, and, with the prayer- 
book tied around his neck in token of derision, was 
hounded through the streets to prison. He was placed 
on a galley ship, but was subsequently released. George 
Hickes, a very learned man, was another famous vicar ; 
he resigned before the revolution which brought William 
and Mary to the throne. 

It was after Layfield had been removed from the 
parish that Sir William Penn brought his infant son 
William to be baptized in the church, a ceremony that 
took place on October 23, 1644. The baptismal font 
at which it took place was shortly after cast out of the 
church, and the present font has, therefore, no associa- 
tion with Penn. This significant event is duly recorded 
in the registers of the church, which remain intact 
from 1558. They appear to have been kept with con- 
siderable care, and contain many entries of personal 
and historic interest. 

Of modern monuments the most striking is the east 
window, dedicated by the Bishop of London in 1898 — 
it serves as a memorial to the incumbency of Dr. A. J. 
Mason. He it was who, at the instigation of Arch- 
bishop Benson, organized the present clergy of the 
parish as a college capable of mission work. 

The tablet to the memory of William Penn, erected 
by The Pennsylvania Society in 1911, is of bronze. Its 
design was originally undertaken by the late Charles 
F. McKim, a member of the Society, but his untimely 
death prevented the realization of his plans. The design 
was finally prepared by his firm, Messrs. McKim, Mead 
& White. The inscription was written by the Venerable 
George Francis Nelson, D.D., Archdeacon of New 



AUhaUows Barking 



York, also a member of the Society. The cost of pre- 
paring and installing the memorial was generously met 
by the Honourable William Andrews Clark, Vice- 
President of the Society. 

This Memorial has been erected in Allhallows Bark- 
ing as the one building still extant in London definitely 
associated with the birth of William Penn. The site 
of his birthplace has long since disappeared.' He was 
born on Tower Hill, to the northwest of the Tower. 
His father's house was in a court, sometimes called 
George Court, on the east side of Trinity Square, Tower 
Hill. What survives of the court is now a goods yard, 
and lies between George Street on the south and the 
Tower Station of the District Railway on the north. 
Most of the court was destroyed in 1883 for the build- 
ing of the station, and this, in turn, disappeared in 1904 
as not needed. A fragment of the London wall forms, 
or formed, a part of the east wall of the court in which 
the Penn house stood. 






Facsimile of the Record of William Penn's Baptism in the Register 
of Allhallows Barking 



[12] 




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WORKS CONSULTED 

C. R. D. Biggs: Berhynge Churche by the Tower. London, 1899. 

A. J. Mason, D.D.: The Romance of an Ancient City Church. In 

The Nineteenth Century. May, 1898. London and New York. 

Philip Norman: London City Churches that Escaped the Great 
Fire. In London Topographical Record, Vol. 5. London, 1908. 

H. B. Wheatley: The Diary of Samuel Pepys. London and New 
York. 



PRESS OF THE KALKHOFF COMPANY 
NEW YORK 



